Tiger fans told to be patient Al Paton
From: Herald Sun
August 04, 2011 4:01PMRICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick denies West Coast has gone past the Tigers in the queue of clubs rebuilding for a premiership.
Hardwick said today it was unfair to compare the Tigers to the Eagles, who are aiming for a top-four finish after collecting the wooden spoon last season.
"If you look at our spine the average age is about 20, look at the West Coast spine with (Quinten) Lynch, (Josh) Kennedy's been around a little while and they've got (Darren) Glass at full-back and (Dean) Cox in the middle," he said.
"We've got (Ben) Griffiths, (Jack) Riewoldt, Ty Vickery up forward and Alex Rance and players like that down back.
"We've just got to persevere and be patient and our time will come."
Hardwick said he was confident the team had made significant improvement from last year despite the fact the Tigers need two more points to match their result from 2010.
"The thing about our list, it's dramatically younger than this time last year and we've got a number of players that we feel have improved, (Dylan) Grimes has shown us he can play, Rance has been an improver and Ty Vickery has stood up.
"The win-loss column is important, don't get me wrong, we want to win as many games as possible ... but there are a number of areas as a footy club we think we've improved in.
"We've still got a hell of a long way to go in certain areas, but we feel we're on the right track.
"We're reasonably excited about where we're at and where we're willing to go."
Hardwick said the Tigers used the bye break to "go back to school" on areas the side had dropped off during a five-match losing streak.
He cited transition of the ball from defence as one, and the players also practiced playing against the West Coast press.
And he said he wasn't interested in a gallant defeat at Patersons Stadium on Sunday.
"We think we can win. Our midfield needs to get up and going and get the ball oing in our half , if we get those two things going for us, which we've got the capability of doing, we'll win the ball game.
"The training schedule of players is dramatically hindered by their bodies but great thing about the bye is it gives you a great chance to reboot ... we felt we got 2-3 really good sessions in and we'll have another one today so that's exciting for us and gives us a chance to show people how we really want to play."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/tiger-fans-told-to-be-patient/story-e6frf9jf-1226108379377
